1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for the production of a cheese curd enriched with a whey protein concentrate (hereinafter abbreviated as WPC) and the production of cheeses prepared therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cheeses have been produced from casein isolated from the coagulated milk. Particularly, hard cheeses have been produced by a draining the whey from the cheese curd in order to reduce the moisture content followed by a molding the curd under pressure. During the process, a whey protein is obtained as a by-product. The recovery and utilization of the whey protein have been the subject of.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,304 discloses a method of the co-precipitation of casein and whey protein, and utilization of this precipitate. However, the final product obtained by this method has not been used for the production of cheeses and was used only as an additive for the production of breads and biscuits for lack of the characteristic feature of cheeses or such commodities.
Active investigations to fully use the whey protein for the production of cheeses have been tried also to increase the yield of cheeses. For example, Australian Patent No. 477,399 discloses a concentration of whole milk or skimmed milk to about 1/3 volume by an ultrafiltration to prepare a "liquid pro-cheese" and a production of cheeses from the obtained "liquid pro-cheese". Japan Republication of International Patent Publication No. 501,810 (1982) discloses a selective concentration of milk by an ultrafiltration to increase the ionic strength followed by fermentation and dehydration of this concentrate. The obtained concentrate is used for the production of cheeses. However, these methods merely describe the recovery of original whey protein in milk together with casein and could not fully recover the whey protein, Furthermore, the procedures require removal of water and the wash out of the whey protein is inevitable. Therefore, satisfactory recovery of the whey protein remain unsolved.
An economic utilization with a satisfactory recovery of the highly concentrated whey protein without affecting the flavor of the final product, cheeses, has not been attained despite enthusiastic efforts.